Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris is Professor and former Department Chair at the UCLA Department of Urban Planning. She holds BA and MA degrees in Architecture and Planning and a PhD in Planning with specialization in Urban Design. Her research focuses on the public environment of the city, its physical representation, aesthetics, meaning and impact on residents. She teaches courses in urban design, public space, and history of the American city. Her research includes documentation of the socio-physical changes that have occurred in the public realm as a result of privatization, revitalization of inner city areas, cultural determinants of design, environmental attributes of crime and their implications for design and policy, and transit oriented development. She has published over seventy journal articles and book chapters and is the co-author of the books Urban Design Downtown: Poetics and Politics of Form (UC Press: 1998) and Sidewalks: Conflict and Negotiation over Public Space (MIT Press, Spring 2009), and the co-editor of the book Jobs and Economic Development in Minority Communities (Temple University Press: 2006).